For three decades, Geary Lockard has owned and operated Tilikum Books & Bindery, first in Olympia and for more than two dozen years on Tower Avenue in Centralia, but June 30 marks the end of an era.
As a business owner, he runs his store full time, but at 75, he says he’s ready to retire — at least, start retiring. A new owner will take over the business and change the name.
“I’m going to rent that back room from her and continue to sell out my tools and phase them out over time,” Lockard said, adding he hopes to help the new owner during the transition. “She’s a reader, but she’s not a bookseller. Salesmanship is sort of an art.”
But the new owner, a woman from Fairbanks, Alaska, plans to expand the bookstore into offering art as well.
“Artists are not good at selling their product,” Lockard said. “I know lots of artists, and they don’t have any interest in selling. But somebody has to sell it if it’s going to be profitable.”
Lockard, who grew up in Idaho near Coeur d’Alene, was not quite 18 when he married Lee Bernard in Kootenai County in 1967. They had two sons, Alex and Nick, and moved to Oregon, where he earned an associate’s degree in environmental technology from Lane Community College but never worked in the field.
After he and Lee divorced in early 1975, he moved to Texas for a while with a girlfriend. In February 1988, he married Ronda Vanyi in Deschutes County, Oregon. They divorced in 2010.
Divorces are never easy, he said, especially dividing everything in half, recovering financially, and then starting all over again.
“I did a little carpentry and boat building and cabinet making,” he said.
While living in Shelton, he sought a job at the library and read a book — “The Complete Guide to Starting a Used Bookstore” by D.L. Gilbert — then bought his own copy, and it changed the direction of his life. After dreaming that an Olympia bookstore was for sale, he stopped by Tilikum Books, and the owner told him the store was available.
The name Tilikum, which means friend in Native American trade languages, also refers to a 30-foot dugout canoe with a cabin on it dubbed “Tilikum” in 1900 by Captain John Voss who sailed it around the world. The ship remains in a maritime museum in Victoria, B.C.
When he bought Tilikum Books on Jan. 2, 1996, from Larry Martin, who had opened it five years earlier in Olympia, he described it as a dream come true.
It took three months to hammer out the details.
“We fought tooth and nail over every last little thing, but finally I wanted it so bad I hung on, and I got it,” Lockard recalled. “I paid for it in two years instead of three.”
But after four and a half years, his landlord planned to sell his building, so Lockard looked for other options and found an answer courtesy of the late Roger Stewart, who owned Book Quest in Centralia.
“I only knew Roger over the phone, except he walked in one day, so we got to know each other,” Lockard said. “When my landlord decided to sell the whole block up in Olympia, I called him [Stewart] and said, ‘Oh, I need a place to go.’ He says, ‘I can make one for you.’ So he did.”
Stewart created room for Tilikum Books in the 1897 Field and Lease building at Main Street and Tower Avenue where he operated his rare bookstore, Book Quest, at 105 W. Main St. Lockard moved Tilikum Books to Centralia in 2000.
Over time, Lockard said, “I got pushed down the street a little bit.”
But he’s been in his current location at 115 N. Tower Ave., across from McMenamins’ Olympic Club, since 2009. He described it as the best side of the best street in town.
“I’ve got the best landlord I’ve ever had,” he said, referring to Mike and Vicki Aldrich, owners of Carquest, or Central Automotive Supply. “Our buildings are back to back. We share the alley. I’m real grateful to them over the years.”
Through the decades, Lockard has sold thousands of used books in more than 62 genres, although his top sellers are science fiction, fantasy, mystery/adventure, and romance. He accepts used books and pays people in store credit or cash. He also sells antique tools and jewels as well as books of local authors on commission.
As a custom book binder, he has repaired damaged books such as priceless family Bibles for clients and fixed tattered books before reselling them.
Lockard enjoys chatting with customers and browsers, and he’ll probably continue greeting guests in the new bookstore for a time. He loves to encourage people to read and served as Lewis County Literacy Council president.
When Danielle Cook, who owned Book, Bone and Stone at 123 Tower Ave., sold her business in April to travel and work in metaphysical consulting, she told Lockard six people expressed interest in buying it. Her website states, “Go meet Brandi and support her dream of owning a bookstore!”
Lockard, who sold his business to one of those six interested parties, said he may check out the senior center but definitely plans to stick around Centralia, “until something else, you know, germinates.”
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Julie McDonald, a personal historian from Toledo, may be reached at memoirs@chaptersoflife.com.
